Late weaning and maternal closeness, associated with advanced motor and visual maturation, reinforce autonomy in healthy, 2-year-old children.

Villar, José; Ochieng, Roseline; Staines-Urias, Eleonora; Fernandes, Michelle; Ratcliff, Marc; Purwar, Manorama; Barros, Fernando; Horta, Bernardo; Cheikh Ismail, Leila; Albernaz, Elaine; +17 more... Kunnawar, Naina; Temple, Sophie; Giuliani, Francesca; Sandells, Tamsin; Carvalho, Maria; Ohuma, Eric; Jaffer, Yasmin; Alison Noble, J; Gravett, Michael; Pang, Ruyan; Lambert, Ann; Bertino, Enrico; Di Nicola, Paola; Papageorghiou, Aris; Stein, Alan; Bhutta, Zulfiqar; Kennedy, Stephen; (2020) Late weaning and maternal closeness, associated with advanced motor and visual maturation, reinforce autonomy in healthy, 2-year-old children. Scientific reports, 10 (1). 5251-. ISSN 2045-2322 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61917-z

Abstract

We studied neurodevelopmental outcomes and behaviours in healthy 2-year old children (N = 1306) from Brazil, India, Italy, Kenya and the UK participating in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project. There was a positive independent relationship of duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and age at weaning with gross motor development, vision and autonomic physical activities, most evident if children were exclusively breastfed for ≥7 months or weaned at ≥7 months. There was no association with cognition, language or behaviour. Children exclusively breastfed from birth to <5 months or weaned at >6 months had, in a dose-effect pattern, adjusting for confounding factors, higher scores for "emotional reactivity". The positive effect of EBF and age at weaning on gross motor, running and climbing scores was strongest among children with the highest scores in maternal closeness proxy indicators. EBF, late weaning and maternal closeness, associated with advanced motor and vision maturation, independently influence autonomous behaviours in healthy children.

Additional Information

Item Type	Article
Faculty and Department	Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health > Dept of Infectious Disease Epidemiology & International Health (2023-)
Research Centre	Maternal Health Group Centre for Maternal, Reproductive and Child Health (MARCH)
PubMed ID	32251309
Elements ID	146580